Strange Reaction at base of hagen ladder

[Shay]

Hey all!

I've had my DIY 2 liter Co2 hooked up to a hagen ladder for a few days now. (hopefully I'll have it hooked up to a reactor soon). This evening I noticed a strange white milky substance at the base of the ladder where the bubbles come out. Each bubble has to push its way through this substance. It kind of looks like a milky white algae. Some of it broke loose and was floating in the middle of the tank.

I have been increasing the kh with baking soda over the past two days. This evening the the readings were

kh 3
gh 8
ph 6.8

Does anyone recognize this? Could it be a reaction b/n the co2 and the baking soda?

[Wö£fëñxXx]

Thats basically normal, reactor will put a stop to all that goo though

[Shay]

Thank you, Wö£fëñxXx.

[SCMurphy]

It's a product of the DIY CO2 production, I have the ladders connected to pressurized CO2 and I never see the white goop.

[Shay]

Boy, you learn something new everyday. No mention of "white goop" anywhere in the plant books. Sounds like a good excuse to buy a pressurized system but I'm gonna have to settle for a reactor to take care of the goop for now.

[eds]

Do you have your CO2 flow through a "bubble counter" bottle?

I recall having that white goop when I first set up my DIY CO2, but haven't had it recur in a long time - I think since I added a 2d bottle and a bubble counter. I assumed that gunk ended up in the botton of the bubble counter, without making it to the ladder/tank.

[anonapersona]

I call it yeast snot.... if you have it, you will want to remove the lines and ladder once in awhile to rinse it all in clean water. Be sure you do not shake the canister as you put it on the tank, and do not overfill the water, you want that air gap in the canister.

I read in cook books that yeast is always airborne, so that if you leave dough out, it can actually get yeast from the air even if you didn't add any. So, I suspect that yeast does travel in the CO2 lines.

[eds]

Off topic - concerning airborne yeast, that is the way beer was originally fermented, in open containers, with the aid of naturally occurring airborne yeasts. This was before folk even knew of te existence of yeast. Now THERE'S a divine reaction one could base a plausible religion on!

Also, when brewing became more sophisticated, it was common for brewing to be restricted during the warmer seasons to minimize "contamination" by undesireable yeasts. Tho I do not have the cites before me, I believe the marzenbier traditionally featured at Oktoberfest was the "last" beer from the previous brewing season, and Oktoberfest sort of kicked off the new season.

[Shay]

LOL! Maybe I'll start my own personal "Thank you airborn yeast gods" religion. Worship will start at 5:00 with a bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale to be followed by a more serious devotion to Guinness Stout.

BTW - I knew there was a reason I like this board. If I'm not mistaken there are a lot of beer guzzlin hockey luvin members on this board with a great sense of humor (and a good working knowlege of aquatic plants to boot).

[FiberCon]

Interesting... I just picked up tow bottles of Belgium Lambik (Lambick?) beer yesterday. It's one of the few beers that is produced today using the natural "yeast from the air" method.